tomcat-users mailing list archives

Andreas Sheriff wrote:
> Hi,
>
> JGuru states that there is a bug in Tomcat 3.1 where a jsp page converted to
> a servlet still loads, even though the original jsp page was deleted
> (http://www.jguru.com/jguru/faq/view.jsp?EID=224108). Is this still a bug
> in 3.2?
>
Well, you have to get into a pedantic discussion of "bug" versus "feature" to
decide what's really going on :-) When you are outside the scope of the
relevant specifications (as we are here), it can get difficult to know
sometimes.
>
> I have Tomcat 3.2 installed on a Linux platform, but I find myself having to
> restart Tomcat whenever I want the jsp to reflect any change in the
> generated servlet. I have even tried deleting the source and class files in
> the work directory, but that doesn't work. Does anyone have any ideas on
> how to correct this? Or do I have to wait for Tomcat 4.0 to be completed.
>
Let's divide this world into at least two sub-worlds:
* I changed the JSP source code itself. All JSP engines are required
by the specs to recompile the page in this case, and therefore reflect
the changes. I've had no problems with this in 3.2 or 4.0.
* I changed a bean class used in a JSP page, without updating the JSP
page itself. The 3.1 and 3.2 approaches to auto-reloading a web app
do not correctly detect all cases of this. The 4.0 approach should do so
correctly for classes in WEB-INF/classes (not yet for classes in JAR
files under WEB-INF/lib).
Under *no* version of Tomcat will you be able to update classes that were loaded
via the CLASSPATH, and have them reflected in changed behavior in your web app,
without restarting Tomcat.
>
> Andreas Sheriff
Craig McClanahan